The South African 2014/15 grape season has seen a steep rise in production volumes with the crop passing the average 55 million 4.5kg equivalent carton mark and shifting to 60+ million 4.5kg equivalent cartons.
Willem Bestbier, CEO of the South African Table Grape Industry (SATGI) said in a statement that the industry had witnessed a 9.36% increase in the total hectares (ha) planted as compared to the 2013/14 season, explaining that the increase in volumes for the next few years would not just be down to new planting, but also due to the fact that old varieties were being replaced by new, higher-yielding ones.
He said that this meant that the traditional export markets of Europe and the United Kingdom (UK) were looking good for the arrival of South African grapes. "The first SA grapes will arrive in three to four weeks and we understand that the late European grape season was not so good, Egypt has also had a difficult time and California and Brazil have had their challenges so the market should be relatively empty for us," said Bestbier.
He commented that South Africa was still waiting for access into the Thai market, a process that has taken longer than expected. But Bestbier is confident this should be resolved by the end of the year which would mean the later producing regions could export there.
